Shoot It And Boot It: FIFA Soccer 12 Review

Fun, frustrating, engaging and at times seemingly fixed, these are just a few qualities pertinent to the beautiful game. FIFA Soccer 12 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) combines these aspects in its representation of the world’s most popular sport. FIFA’s features, from nominal to substantial, keep matches fresh but it’s not without it’s kinks. Some alterations don’t make this a one size fits all affair. Read on and see if the digital boot fits.

Tactical Defending transforms defense by emphasizing marking, jockeying and anticipating passes. You’ll likely struggle at first as you mash the tackle button in vain. Then hard earned user challenges, interceptions and forced bad touches feel more satisfying once you grasp it. Nevertheless, you can switch to legacy (i.e. classic) defending for offline play if you think TD’s not worth the trouble. The impact engine revamps collisions to mixed results. Sometimes hits look realistic but players still fall in the goofiest ways. Hand balls, if enabled, and penalties are more frequent with this new mechanic since limbs inadvertently flail around. Jostling feels off since you’ll get tangled up with other players. It’s all hit or miss, even if its a step in the right direction, and feels incomplete.

Support Your Club tracks your XP towards your favorite team’s rank. The game averages players daily XP so clubs with small fan bases have a shot at getting to the top in weekly seasons. I currently support Arsenal and they, along with other 100,000+ fan base clubs like Chelsea have been relegated. Regular online challenges for XP based on recent games add more replay value too. It’s all for bragging but it’s a novel meta game supporting the core experience.

Now, let’s get to offense. Remember Fernando Torres’s doozy of a miss earlier this season? Your attempts won’t look much different for the first few games. The ball travels waywardly and finishing finesse shots isn’t as easy this year. The AI thankfully doesn’t pressure the ball from box to box anymore. They’ll provide space to develop a slow buildup then tighten up on the flanks and in their third. You can finally utilize the midfield with well placed passes and create space in crowded situations via effective precision dribbling. This alteration makes the game feel more authentic but comes at the price of the AI’s unreal defensive abilities.

The computer can be daunting on Professional difficulty upwards. Defenders have uncanny speed, clairvoyant reactions, regularly dispossess you and commit hard tackles with rare foul calls. The opposition even consistently tracks down players of Theo Walcott’s or Cristiano Ronaldo’s speed when they have ample stamina. FIFA 12 obviously discourages your from using old tactics but it could’ve picked a better method like amplifying fatigue to compensate for pace. Super goalies are back in full force and your AI teammates, while slightly improved, still make idiotic decisions on default settings. FIFA 12 graciously offers sliders for the first time in the series. I’ve taken the liberty to mess with them and I’m glad with my results. Now the game plays great offline and still runs like a simulation. Unfortunately, you can’t upload and share them but they’re still beyond welcome.

Career mode provides routine additions. Stories and player updates are more detailed and it’s slightly easier to promote your pro. You’ll still lose points without explanation on the pitch though. This has been a problem for two years running. Anyway, manager mode stresses maintaining player morale and introduces youth scouting. The latter feature may come handy since young prospects like Eden Hazard and Neymar go for £30 million and £40+ million respectively: easily out of your initial transfer budget. Funky transfer requests persist so prepare to scratch your head when the window opens.

Online play remains inconsistent. There’s still noticeable lag, random sign outs and sudden disconnects. The game lamentably allows people to use ridiculous high pressure custom tactics 90 minutes straight while their players don’t tire. Players usually control their strikers while their computer outfielders do all the work until you lose the ball. So, once again, you must resort to tedious strategies to stay competitive. All the solid changes to defending leave once you run into players letting the AI loose with all out aggression. Every game doesn’t devolve into quick touch keep away but matchmaking’s a crap shoot: especially in Head to Head.

FIFA 12’s Jekyll and Hyde approach slightly shorten its appeal. The game’s an extensive product as the nuances of TD, career mode, and playing with friends online and off provide tons of entertainment. Commentary tries to impress by adding Alan Smith alongside Martin Tyler with Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend serving as their own team. You’ll still hear the same lines from years past and the new, latter duo’s lines are pretty sparse. Online play with randoms leaves much to be desired since much of the community uses exploitable measures to win. A recent patch fixed some issues like the GK glitch but others, like unrealistic fatigue, remain. Incorporating the new defensive scheme and scaling back the pressure make a world of difference for the better. Yet your mileage will vary if you’re an online warrior.

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legacy defending all day. I love this game. Since its been bought its all I play on the box of x. I find the play in the final third to be much more realistic. I can pull of the through lob passes in the box which is something I could never get down in the last game. I feel like your offensive AI is better too even if the defense is still short bus friendly.

This game is DOPE! Except for one thing: MY FUCKING MANAGER MODE DOESN”T WORK ANYMORE!!! I’m currently using Manchester City (GO TEAM!) and I’m not even halfway through the season. One night after playing Bolton, I tried to advance to the next which was Manchester United and the screen locked up and my PS3 froze! I hit the reset button and was greeted by a “Please Wait” message on my TV screen. I’ve been trying for days now to correct the problem but no luck, everything else in the game works great EXCEPT for my Manchester City season.

ps: The tactical defending is great! I got tired of playing people who couldn’t defend so they would charge at me and just swipe the ball away. Not anymore! Now you must EARN each possession with skill. The slider addition was a smart move, more customization is never a bad thing, I only wish that EA hadn’t removed the ability to change the weather conditions. The youth scouting feature is dope too! I also tried to scoop up Neymar and was told that I didn’t have enough transfer budget! OUCH! Sold off a few bums on my squad and STILL couldn’t afford him! LOL! The morale feature is cool but kind of annoys me because you get players who are disgruntled with the amount of playing time that they’re getting, or mad because they aren’t starting. (Nasri came back off of injury and got pissed because I subbed him off in the second half of a game! Tevez bitched at me for starting Dzeko over him for three matches!) Still, overall FIFA 12 is great, addictive and fun as usual.

pss: Cadet, are you going to review/play Uncharted 3 and Modern Warfare 3?

I had that happen to. Had to start over, but no problems since then. Frustrating though.

And as far as the new defending I understand online it being useful cuz people would defend cheaply in the last couple of games, but for me video games are supposed to be fun and that new shit aint fun. Ive played and play soccer in real life, I know how difficult it actually is. Humans are meant to use their hands not their feet. In a video game I want to relax.

@ Panda: You had delete your WHOLE season?! Shit, I made some dope trades, I’d hate to have to start over. If it fixes the problem then I guess I could live with it. My secret to tactical defending (based on PS3 controls, XBox users adjust accordingly) is this: If you hold down the X button you’ll rush at your mark and press him. Once you get close enough to him, ease off of the X button and hold L2 to jockey. From there, time your tackle and get the ball! It works for me most of the time.

@flea
Yeah its all good though cuz Rooney was asking out of Manchester because he was homesick (????????????) so it was about time that season ended. Ill try that if I ever make it to online play, Im having too much fun in career mode. Brought in Schweinsteiger and Honda to shore up that midfield and brought in Maicon to give fabio and rafael some time to get better. My team is stacked. Bet I wouldnt have lost 6-1 Sir Alex.

I actually like TD. I DON’T like when heads refuse to learn it online and let the computer press the ball non stop.

@Flea

I didn’t have a problem with Manager mode but I heard there were issues. I didn’t know if they were widespread or not so I left it alone. Also I don’t know if we’ll review UC 3 or MW3 but we aim to take a look at whatever games we can.